Four Sixth Form pupils headed to the NASA Kennedy Space Center over the summer holidays and won the prestigious 25th annual International Space Settlement Design Competition. It is both a design competition and a management simulation game and has been running since 1994 and has been held at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre since 1996. Our girls took part in the final and won the competition outright with their design for a lunar settlement.

The girls travelled to Cape Canaveral to compete in the final international round of the competition having completed various stages in London during the year, leading up to the final at NASA. The competition uses a fictional organization called the Foundation Society to create a futuristic setting for the competition. From there, four fictional companies are created with sizes varying from few to dozens, depending on the attendance, and they must compete for a “contract” with the Foundation Society. The Foundation Society creates a futuristic setting for the competition, around twenty years in the future, and competitors must use plausible extensions of current technology in their proposals (i.e. no “cold fusion” or space elevators).

The four fictional companies vote for a company President, Vice President, and are allotted adult “CEOs”, who are engineers with experience in the field, to advise them. Companies are given an RFP to which they respond in a paper and slideshow proposal which includes illustrations, diagrams, calculations, and references. On the final day, all four teams present their proposal to a panel of professional judges, generally from the aerospace industry, and must answer a series of questions regarding their proposed design.

The competition was such a challenging, rewarding, and enjoyable experience and simulates the engineering industry perfectly. The girls utilised skills they had developed on their Computer A level course and the final culminated in a formal proposal leading to an hour’s presentation. Click here to view the girls presentation.

The girls would like to thank their teachers for always encouraging them to take challenges and be creative, and commented that they are so lucky to be a part of a school that values creativity in this way.

Well done girls!